A modern telephony system includes a switch that routes incoming calls to individuals, agents, usually located in a call center, or a remote office, and a control center that receives information from the switch. The control center includes a call-supervisor that is trained to review the information from the switch and trained to monitor the call traffic to maintain a balance between call demand and the workforce. The call-supervisor is responsible for making certain that the workforce has a sufficient number of agents working at any given time to serve customer demand.
In a modern telephony system, the agents are frequently distributed in remote locations to handle subscriber services. Typically, the agents are assigned to specific workforces, where a given workforce handles specific types of calls such as directory assistance, or billing assistance, etc. Normally, the work schedules for the agents in a workforce are planned approximately one or two weeks in advance. During the course of a year, there are days that have abnormal call volume, i.e., call volume that is either greater than (or less than) a statistically “average day”. Consequently, on an abnormal day, more or fewer agents are needed to handle calls than on an average day. Unfortunately, schedulers are often ill-equipped to plan for such abnormal days. Consequently, a solution to this and other problems is needed.